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the trump coronavirus watch continues. i keep on updating my phone to see the latest news. today chris christie confirmed he contracted the coronavirus and a 3rd republican senator has gotten infected as well. in the late morning a team of 10 doctors came out to give a press conference about trump, the whole event seemingly staged, the doctor reading from prepared statements and were evasive when answering questions, especially the one regarding if trump was on oxygen, which he was before he left the white house. later a source told reporters that trump's condition is actually worse than the doctors let on and the next 48 hours will be crucial as to whether he'll improve or get worse. speaking of which, chris christie checked himself into a hospital, as he's mostly likely to succumb to covid-19, with his obesity and asthma.

i heard somebody upstairs this morning, figured it was steve and paul, but they're not due back until the end of october. most likely it was jen again, crashing at their place to write her dissertation. i was outside briefly to sweep the dead leaves from the sidewalk and front porch. i also went into the basement to check if there were any leaks (there were none).

i had dumplings for lunch when i went over to my parents via motorcycle. they've been using the vitamix blender we found to make a smoothie this morning, my father said it was very powerful. all parts of the vitamix can be replaced, which contributes to its longevity, but buying genuine parts are expensive, and even the knockoffs are pricey. we bought a replacement high/low toggle switch off of ebay that was $23. one of the feet on the blender was missing but my father maybe a replacement using a cross-section of a large diameter silicon tubing. we also wanted to get a lid for the container but the cheapest one was still $13 from china. we did see a US vendor selling a 2L vitamix container that seemed to include not only the container, but the lid, blade, and base - all for $37. it seemed too good to be true, we figured it was for container only, and ended up not getting it.

i'm my least productive on the weekends. i spent the day surfing the web and i didn't even set foot outside, completely lost interest in gardening this of the season. basically waiting for the weather to get colder, for everything to die, before cleaning up the backyard.

shocking news today: cam newton tested positive for coronavirus and won't be able to play against the kansas city chiefs tomorrow. that was a game that a lot of people were hoping to watch, a rematch of two titans from last season. instead of having the game tomorrow with a backup quarterback, the league is postponing the game until monday or tuesday, so they can test other players to see if anyone else contracted the virus. it sucks but i'm not surprised, when newton first arrived in boston, he was shown wearing a face mask as a mouth mask, leaving his nose exposed. also, there's just been a lot of coronavirus going around, so what's one more famous person on top of the ever growing list?

after dinner i returned to cambridge. it's the first time i've biked at night with my new glasses, and it was amazing how clearly i could see. i always thought it was bad vision that i see such more glare when i ride at nights but it was actually my scratched up lenses. what a difference new lenses can be! i should've gotten new glasses a long time ago.

a package was on my doorstep, i couldn't remember what it could be. turns out it was the ankbit E3 wireless earbuds from 1Mii. the cheapest earbuds i could find on amazon is $30, and i only paid $17 for these. they work but nothing spectacular, and now the market is flooded with cheap chinese knockoffs (of which these are a pair). these are knockoffs in every possible way: from a company called 1Mii (copying xiaomi) and branded as ankit (copying anker). the coolest thing is the case though, which functions as a charger for the earbuds, as well as emergency battery pack for a phone. there's even a digital display with the battery level, plus the case also functions as a bluetooth pairing coordinator, the moment you turn on the case it pairs the earbuds to your device. the earbuds can also be worn independently, i might give it a try tomorrow.

there was nothing good on tonight, other than the season premiere of saturday night live, covid-19 edition. chris rock was the host, meg thee stallion the musical guest. i got hungry and made a cup of noodles as a snack. when the show finally started, i pretty much missed all of it because i went down a rabbit hole of plumbing videos on youtube, and then intermittently went into the bathroom to see if i could remove the flange holder from the shower diverter (nope, it's still on there solid). if i can get remove the holder, then i might be able to remove the diverter stem, and then finally fix my tub.